


Goodbye forever

by softgrungeprophet



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Bad Flirting, Gen, I Dislike Bozai, Link (Legend of Zelda) Uses Sign Language, Nonbinary Link, Rejection, Self-Defense, Unwanted Advances, cause none of it feels either right or wrong anyway, dorrah speaks but it is a brief moment so i don't wanna tag her as a character, not that the fic goes super into that but it sure is a mood huh, of the sort where you kind of just go along with whatever people say, reflexive self defense specficially, this is mostly me going man i wish i could hit this guy, this isn't non-con or anything like that so don't worry.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 02:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14885730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softgrungeprophet/pseuds/softgrungeprophet
Summary: "Looks like the Hylian voe got himself caught in rougher storms than he could weather!"Link rubbed his hand. Maybe a harder hit than intended.





	Goodbye forever

Hungry little monster. Greedy, sassy, rude. All couched within flirtation of course—cute, playful. The context of desire—for boots, ostensibly. For companionship, on the part of Bozai, it seemed. And the more they spoke to one another, the desire growing in Link's gut to break the man's arm. Or at least, perhaps, to slap him.

Not in an angry way, even.

This sort of put off, amused yet repelled feeling. Disgusted, tight smile hidden under the veil Vilia had sold him, them, her. Whichever one people decided to use. Nose wrinkled and teeth bared in an unpleasant grin. And this guy, glasses glinting, seemed oblivious to it all, impervious. Sure, when they first met it was dark, sure Link's face obscured with maroon cloth. Hands on hips, leaning slightly back. Nonetheless.

Thirty-five years old, he'd said.

Yet there he stood, in the shaded, filtered daylight outside of Gerudo Town, after these quests and requests—if you bring me this I'll give you that and Link might have felt bad taking the shoes off a man's feet another day but something in the sugary way Bozai dropped backhanded compliments, and in his drive to keep Link preoccupied and engaged as a distraction—it read as an intent toward manipulation, though he made it seem awkward, shy and harmless.

Absolutely not. Not a chance, no likelihood, not in the past hundred years and not in the next hundred years, amnesia be damned. Link would sooner elope with a random stranger from any given stable than allow so much as the vaguest of affections from Bozai—

Of course he reached for Link's hand, rambling something about burning Link's image into his retinas.

They caught the slightest hush of silenced whispers nearby, surely gossip. Giggles.

Bozai's hands were dry to the touch, a little rough from the climate, and quite warm. Not particularly slimy or abhorrent, which maybe drove home the wiggling discomfort of his faux-guileless, goofy veneer.

Without much thought, instinctive, Link recoiled and transitioned through motions beaten into his muscles, trained through a lifetime, presumably. Slightly clumsy for a century of disuse and six months of tumbled re-learning. Heel of the palm to the nose, not enough to break, but enough to hurt like hell.

This grown man grabbed his face with a strange kind of wail. Several women nearby whooped and laughed.

"Looks like the Hylian _voe_ got himself caught in rougher storms than he could weather!"

Link rubbed his hand. Maybe a harder hit than intended.

"I gave you my boots!" Bozai's voice whined with a mosquito thinness that grated on Link's nerves. "And you punch me for it?!" His eyes watered as he shot Link a wounded look. In fairness, whose wouldn't?

I DIDN'T PUNCH YOU. Link twisted his hand to point a thumb, firm.

"Wh—"

I STRUCK YOU.

Bozai's face twisted behind his glasses, in a general mush of confusion and feeble piteousness. And probably pain. He dropped his hands, palms up, imploring. "I don't get why you'd hit me when I've been so nice to you." He sighed with some sort of swell of emotion. "This is what I get for helping out tough, spunky girls. But your vigor endears me even more, in a way."

A hoarse sound croaked its way from Link's throat. Maybe a laugh.

GOODBYE AGAIN.

Something about despair, "Oh, goodbye again... I can't help but feel I'll never find another crass beauty like—"

GOODBYE FOREVER.

"Oh."

Link gathered up the fruits—or, boots—of his labor. Armed to the teeth, draped with shoes, sunburned and tired. Off he tramped, through the entrance to Gerudo Town. Dorrah stopped him, hand on a shoulder, an affirming pat. She nodded toward the shaded awning where Bozai waited out the sun.

"Is that _voe_ giving you trouble?"

An eyeroll. NO. Quick palm flat to the chest. HE'S LEAVING.

She laughed, and let Link stride into town.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Love to get negged by a 35 year old man :)


End file.
